
Glass__rjL_A_2 



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ADDRESS 






Id f ettlers' llub, 



DELIVERED BY 



3Dr. EIsrOCH OHA.SE, 



J"Tal3r -itli, 1S^2- 



MILWAUKEE: 

MILWAUKEE NEWS CO., BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS. 
1872. 



-^ 



-A-DDRESS 



Old Settlers' Club, 



DELIVERED BY 



Dr. ENOCH CHASE, 



j-uLi^r -itiQ.^ is'za. 



MILWAUKEE: 

MILWAUKEE NEWS CO., BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS. 
1872. 



7 



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ADDRESS 

TO 

The Old Settlers' Club, 



Gentlemen : — I feel highly honored in being called ui)on to 
address you to-day. I congratulate you ujion your hale and 
undegenerate ai>pearance, which bespeaks your temperate lives, 
and the salubrity of our Wisconsin climate. When we consider 
what Wisconsin was thirty years ago. and what it now is, we may 
well be surprised at the wonders which a generation has wrought. 
Thirty years ago railroads were almost unknown, and it was 
eight years later before the first mile of track was laid in Wis- 
consin. To the labors of some of you we are indebted for the 
impulse which led to the construction of a thousand miles of 
railroad in the State. Others of you founded our commercial 
enterprises ; built these rows of stately business palaces that 
line our streets ; established our schools and churches ; reared 
up our vast manufacturing interests ; formed the early ranks of 
the learned professions here, which are a noble credit to the 
Northwest, and planted here on these lovely shores the various 
elements of our municipal greatness. Under the benignant 
and guiding influences which you created, you have seen Mil- 
waukee become the first primary wheat market in the world, the 
fourth pork packing city in the Union, the second commercial city 



on Lake Michigan, the seventeenth in population and, according 
to Dr. Johnson, the healthiest American city. Gentlemen, you 
may well be proud of these results of your labors. The worker 
is better than the speculator ; others sold corner lots while you 
founded a city. Long may you yet live to behold the greatness 
of which you have planted the fruitful germs. But the main 
object of this address is not congratulatory, but to preserve 
some fragments of the history of the first settlers in Milwaukee, 
to which we will proceed. 

Pierre Marquette was the first white man wlio ever saw this 
spot. He left Green Bay, Oct. 26th, 1674, ^^"^ traveled along 
the coast to Chicago, which he reached Dec. 4th, of that year. 
Father Nicollet traveled the same journey and back six years 
later. On the 14th of September, 1799, Father Cosme left 
Mackinaw with one attendant, and reached Milwaukee on the 
7th of October, where they remained two days, on account of a 
storm on the lake, and laid in a store of wild ducks for 
provision. They reached the mouth of Root River, Oct. loth, 
and ascended it for the purpose of reaching Fox River, which 
led into the Mississippi. Failing m that attempt, they proceeded 
to Chicago where they found Father Buinoteau. The next 
mention made of Milwaukee was by Ivt. James Carroll, in 1761. 
The first trader located here was Alexander Laframbois, who 
established a trading house on this spot in 1785, which he main- 
tained a few years, when he returned to Mackinaw and sent his 
brother here to supply his place. The latter was afterward 
killed by the Winnebago Indians on Rock River, and the post 
was abandoned. 

Soon after the close of the Revolutionary War, Mr. Mirandeau 
and John Vieau left Quebec for the Northwest. Mr. Miran- 
deau was an educated French gentleman, belonging to one of 
the first families of Quebec. He was a Catholic and studied 
for the priesthood, but, on the eve of taking orders, came with 
Mr. Vieau to the Northwest as an employe of the American 



Fur Comparl)^ They traded some years about the Lake Superior 
region and afterwards on the Wabash, and finally came to Mil- 
waukee about the year 1795. Mr. Mirand6au brought with him 
his wife, a Chippewa woman whom he had just married. He 
resided here till his death, in 182 1, and raised a family of ten 
children, of whom Mrs. Victor Perthier, the wife of Joseph 
Perthier, was the sixth and was born in the year 1805. He 
was a blacksmith and receixed pay for his work in game and 
furs, selling the latter at Mackinaw. He was a tall, fine looking 
man, with crisp, curly hair. His house occupied the site of the 
old Milwaukee House, and was his home for twenty-five years* 
He raised wheat, corn, potatoes, beans, &c., on the land along 
Huron street and south of it. This land was then tillable, as 
the water in the lake was some four or five feet lower than it now 
is, and the marsh along the Kinnickinnic, east of Dr. Weeks 
garden, was planted in corn. He appears to have been a reli- 
gious man, as he had jjrayers in his house every evening and 
was in the habit of reading religious books to his family. He had 
quite a large libraiy, and spent all his leisure time in reading. 
He was a great favorite of his wild neighbors, who promised 
him all the land between the river and lake as far as the North 
Point when they made the treaty for the sale of their lands ; 
but he died before that treaty was made, and Mr. Juneau 
succeeded him as the chief white man in Milwaukee. He was 
buried near the intersection of Broadway and Wisconsin streets. 
His widow survived till 1838 and was well known to many of 
the early settlers of Milwaukee. Full and half blood women 
made true and faithful wives to the traders, but would tolerate no 

infidelity by their liege lords. The mother of Mrs. was 

driven from the house of her sister in Green Bay in mid-winter, 
as Hagar was driven from the tents of Abraham, and she was 
compelled to go on foot to Sheboygan, thus proving that human 
nature is the same in all ages and among all races. 



I have known the history of Mr. Mirandeau for thirty-six 
years, and have been surprised that his name is never mentioned 
as the founder of Milwaukee. John Vieau spent his summers 
in Milwaukee and his winters in Green Bay. Stanislaus, Chap- 
peau, Lauscut, Filey, and several others are mentioned by my 
informant as occasional residents here, but Mr. Mirandeau was 
the first white man who moved here, spent his married life here, 
died and was buried here. I think this entitles him to the honor 
of recognition as the first white settler of Milwaukee. All his 
children who survived him went to Kansas, except Mrs. Perthier. 
She, her three children and four grand children, the immediate 
descendants of Mirandeau, still reside in this county. 

John Baptiste Bawbeal, a son-in-law of Alexander Lafram- 
boise, had a trading post at about the foot of Chestnut street 
for some years between 1800 and 1S12. 

I have lived in the West forty-one years, more than the aver- 
age lifetime of a generation. Forty years ago the territory of 
Michigan included Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota, and con- 
tained a poi)ulatiuii of 31,639. Now the territory contains a 
population of 3,645,000. Two newspapers were then printed in 
this vast territory ; one hundred and eighty-two are now printed 
in Wisconsin alone. During the winter of 183 1-2, a weekly 
mail on horseback supplied all the country west of Tecumseh, 
Michigan. New York City hatl then a population of 202,589, 
or about two-thirds of the population of Chicago (then a mere 
trading post) at the time of the great fire. Solomon Juneau 
and his employes were the sole inhabitants of Milwaukee in 
1832, while now it is the home of 100,000 souls. There were 
then less miles of railroad in the United States than there are 
now in Milwaukee county. The main route of travel at that 
time between the East and West was by Lake Erie and the Erie 
Canal, and half a month was occupied in the journey from New 
England to Detroit. Now, by eitlier of the four lines of rail- 
road, the traveler can reach New York in thirty-four hours after 



leaving Milwaukee. California, the Rocky Mountains and the 
great plains, were then known only to the Indian tribes and a 
few adventurous Spaniards from Mexico. They are now our 
near neighbors, and lie at our open doorways. 

In 1831, Wisconsin had 2,048 white inhabitants, principally 
located in Brown and Crawford counties, which then, in fact, 
embraced nearly all the present territory of the State. The 
main route of travel across the country was by way of the Fox 
and Wisconsin rivers. There was a military post at Chicago, 
(Fort Dearborn,) at Green Bay, (Fort Ho-ward,) at Prairie du 
Chien, (Fort Crawford,) and Fort Snelling was the farthest post 
to the northward. That was the first year of active emigration 
to the Great West. The Black Hawk War, in 1832, suspended 
emigration, which was vigorously renewed in 1833-4. In 1835, 
Michigan formed a State Constitution, and settlers began to 
enter Wisconsin in large numbers. In April 1835, there was 
not a single tavern north of Chicago, though one was being 
built at Gross Point. There was a shanty west of Waukegan ; 
Vieau had an Indian trading post at Skunk Grove ; Solomon 
Juneau, George H. Walker and Horace Chase each had Indian 
stores at Milwaukee, and White and Evans had albo a shanty 
near the foot of Huron street. Waukegan, Kenosha and Racine 
were yet unknown. On my journey to Milwaukee I stopped 
at the shanty back of the present site of Waukegan, where I 
saw the only white man after leaving Gross Point till I reached 
Milwaukee. Arriving in Milwaukee, April 9th, 1835, I found 
Solomon Juneau, Albert Fowler, Horace Chase, White, Evans, 
Joel S. Wilcox, and some few others whose names I do not 
recollect, who soon afterwards left the country. The road led 
by the present site of the Layton House, near where Burnham's 
brick yard now is, and through the present Fifth and Eighth 
Wards to Walker's Point. A few claims had been made between 
that road and the lake. Indian trails were the only roads away 
from the place to the westward and northward. 



The settlement of new countries is nature's plan for improv- 
ing the human race. The more enterprising, vigorous and 
mtelhgent leave the thickly settled eastern world and the homes 
of old civilizations and come to live in the broad West Here 
the blood of the different races is crossed, and a superior popu 
lation is produced by the process. The Saxon, the Celt, the 
Teuton, the Scandinavian and Sclavonian here mix together as 
inevitably as the Missouri and the Mississippi flow into a single 
channel and produce one mighty flood. Intermarriage and the 
consequent intermixture of the races who occupy our soil is a 
contmuous process. In 1870 there were born in Milwaukee 
county 2,715 children of foreign fathers and native mothers, or 
of native fathers and foreign mothers. At the same time, there 
were in the State 47,073 children whose fathers or mothers were 
of foreign birth, the other parent being a native. The healthy 
emigrant women, who do not fear either work or the breeding of 
children, will be mothers of the future rulers of the United States. 
They bear to the world healthy sons and daughters, healthy 
morally and intellectually, who will form an imperial, domi- 
nating race, fit for the highest achievements in civilization, in 
progress and empire. 

The first framed house built in Milwaukee stood on or near 
the ground now occupied by Bradley & Metcalf's store, and was 
occupied as an office, in 1835, by Albert Fowler, who had been 
appointed Justice of the Peace by the Governor of Michigan 
territory. The first warehouse was built at the mouth of the 
river in May of the same year by Clybourn & Chase. No crops 
were raised in 1835, and the settlers obtained flour from Ohio, 
potatoes from Michigan, and pork and beef from Illinois. 

In the month of June, 1835, a Methodist preacher, whose 
name I have forgotten, arrived here, and preached the first 
sermon in Milwaukee in my log house at the mouth of the river. 
He and Mr. Barber, a Congregationalist, preached occasionally 



afterward in the same place. Mr. Clark, the presiding elder, visited 
the place and preached once during the winter of 1^35-36. 

The first white child born in the place was Milwaukee Smith, 
born in October, 1835, daughter of U. B. Smith, still a resident 
of this county. I was the only physician in the place, and 
attended to such few cases of illness as occurred until the arrival 
of Dr. Barber, in the Spring of 1836, when he assumed my 
practice such as it was. The most important case which I 
attended was that of Dr. B. B. Carey, of Racine, who had been 
shot through the lungs by a desperado whom he ejected from a 
claim made by him at that place. 

B. Finch made and William Seaver laid the first brick in 
Milwaukee. U. B. Smith was the first tailor ; Edward Wisner 
the first shoemaker; George Reed the first law)^er; Daniel 
Richards the first printer ; Samuel Brown the first carpenter ; and 
B. K. Edgerton was the first surveyor who settled in Milwaukee. 
William Strottman was the first German emigrant. Hon. A. 
G. Ellis published the first newspaper published in Wisconsin, the 
Green Bay Intelligencer, of which the first number was issued 
in December, 1833. 

Milwaukee was the favorite summer resort of several tribes 
of Indians, among whom were the Pottawotamies, Winneba- 
goes, Chippewas, Menomonees and fragments of the Sacs and 
Foxes. They lived in bark houses which they built along the 
bluffs, and subsisted mainly on fish ; sturgeon, trout and white 
fish being the principal varieties caught. According to my 
informant more than two hundred of these bark houses were 
built for the accommodation of these aboriginal lakeside loiter- 
ers, who numbered at least two thousand, and returned here 
year after till driven away by the white population. According 
to Catlin, the Indians before being contaminated by the white 
race were moral in their i)ractices, and though yielding to super- 
stitious beliefs were really a religious people. They had the 
same reverence for the Great Spirit as the white man has for 



10 

the Deity which he worshii:)s, and they probaljly led as pure 
lives as are led by the majority of Christians. They have almost 
passed away, and the feeble, vagabond remnants of the great 
tribes which remain about us appear to serve only as reminders 
that the savage races, when brouglit into contact with civiliza- 
tion, acquire its vices widiout its virtues, which become simply 
the means of their destruction. 

In the common course of events, my dear and time honored 
friends, our human forms will be laid beneath the clods of the 
valleys and the tears of affection will moisten the verdure that 
grows above us. What we have done that was good and what 
we have done that was evil in our lives, will then stand in judg- 
ment against us, to our honor or to our dishonor, not only 
among men but before the Author and Judge of our being. 
Three of our number have died during the past year; more will 
probably pass away during the year before us, for, at the ages 
in life which the most of us have reached, our tenure here is a 
feeble and uncertain one. Men live happily, and their days are 
long in the land, in the proportion that they obey the laws of 
life, and their memory is blessed as is the measure of the good 
deeds, whether small or great, which they leave behind them. 
From what I know of you, and by the age that is yours, I judge 
that your years have not been misspent, but are fruitful of the 
good that crowns useful lives, that bears beneficent fruit in the 
community where you live, and that will make your names 
fragrant in the remembrance of mankind when you are gone. 
I shall hold you in kind remembrance, and you will be ever 
present in my benedictions, as I trust I may be in yours. 



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